The democratisation of politics may sound like something of a misnomer, but it is a real phenomenon where citizens are banding together to get more involved in politics, but not through elections and the normal channels.
One such initiative is Poleeto, a new Irish web site that is described as a “civic and political social network”. The site is intended to be a platform to allow “the public vote and have their say on trending issues in politics and current affairs, and connect with their fellow constituents and elected representatives”.
Declan Burrowes, a cofounder of Poleeto, and PR and media professional, said “By providing a single, consolidated platform for civic and political engagement, Poleeto filters out the noise of other social networks and concentrates on what matters to the user, like local issues and getting in touch with influencers and representatives”.
“On Poleeto,” said Burrowes, “politicians connect through their constituencies, so it’s much easier to enter a thoughtful and constructive dialogue with the people who they actually represent.”
Constructive dialogue is not always an easy thing to facilitate in political circles, as has been seen in various exchanges on the likes of Twitter. So much so, that particular platform has had to introduce specific anti-trolling measures.
According to Poleeto, when a user registers, they are put into three groups, or communities: their local county or city council, their Dáil constituency, and their EU Parliament constituency. Users can connect with other group members as well as representatives and politicians. There is also the facility for both users and politicians to post in a general ‘Ireland’ community.
“There are many people who simply don’t feel connected to the people who represent them — if they know who they are at all — and don’t know how to access them or what they can do to help,” said Burrowes. “With Poleeto, we’ve found that once we show people who their representatives are and how they can help them, and then provide a direct platform to reach them, they immediately feel more involved, empowered and much more willing to ask questions and share opinions.”
Running in beta for some time, Poleeto has already hosted live question and answer sessions with Irish representatives such as Eamon Ryan, leader of the Green Party, and Matt Carthy, Sinn Féin MEP. For the general election, candidates were invited to share their election manifestos with voters, and these included Minister Katherine Zappone and Kate O’Connell TD.
According to Burrowes, the three-person team behind Poleeto has ambitions to grow the model beyond Ireland, to the UK and beyond into Europe.
“Poleeto.com is a completely bootstrapped start-up,” said Burrowes. “We’ve invested our own time and money into building what you see today, and with a part-time team of three. There’s still so much we want to add and improve.”
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